And Paul earnestly beholding the council Fastening his eyes upon them, looking wistly and intently at them, and thereby discovering a modest cheerfulness, and a becoming boldness, confidence, and intrepidity, as being not conscious of any guilt, and well assured of the goodness of his cause: said,…

And the high priest Ananias This could not be the same with Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, but rather Ananus his son; though this is more generally thought to be Ananias the son of Nebedaeus, whom Josephus [[11]] speaks of. There is one R.

Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee Which may be considered either as a prophecy of what would be, that God would smite him with some judgment here, or with death quickly, or with eternal damnation hereafter; taking up his own words, and suggesting that a retaliation would be made, and…

And they that stood by The members of the sanhedrim that were next to the apostle; or the servants of the high priest, since they are said to stand, whereas those of that court sat: said, revilest thou God’s high priest? which seems to confirm that the apostle’s words were not a bare prediction,…

Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest Or I did not know that he was the high priest; and the sense is, that he did not really know him, either because he had been long absent from Jerusalem; and besides there were new high priests made, sometimes every year, and…

But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, &c.] That is, that one part of the sanhedrim consisted of Sadducees, which was often the case; sometimes the high priest was of this sect, as Ananias probably was, and sometimes the greater part of the sanhedrim were Sadducees, and even…

And when he had so said He stopped and made a pause: and there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; about the things which he had spoken of, particularly the resurrection of the dead; and this was what the apostle intended, so that his end was answered by the speech he made:…

For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection Of the dead, being ignorant of the Scriptures, and the power of God; see (Matt. 22:23, Matt. 22:29) .

And there arose a great cry Or noise, a loud clamour; they began to be very noisy, and to talk loud, and in high spirits, one against another: and the Scribes that were of the Pharisees’ part arose; there were Scribes in the sanhedrim, and these were some of them on the side of the Sadducees, and…

And when there arose a great dissension When that was come to a very great height, hot words were spoken, and they were ready to come to blows, and there was like to be a riot and tumult among them: the chief captain fearing lest Paul should be pulled in pieces of them; either of the Sadducees,…

And the night following The day in which Paul was brought before the sanhedrim, and pleaded his own cause before them, and had thrown them into confusion and division: the Lord stood by him; the Lord Jesus Christ appeared in a vision to him, and stood very near him, by the side of him, by the bed…

And when it was day As soon as it was light, very early in the morning: certain of the Jews banded together; these very likely were of the sect of the Sadducees, who had been exceedingly irritated and provoked by what Paul had said the day before in the council; these therefore gathered together,…

And they were more than forty which had made this conspiracy. ] Who met together, formed this resolution, entered into this scheme, and bound themselves with this oath; the word rendered “conspiracy”, signifies an agreement by oath; such a number of them banded together, that they might have…

And they came to the chief priests, and elders Who were members of the sanhedrim, to acquaint them with their designs: and said, we have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul: these chief priests and elders, had they acted according to the character…

Now therefore ye with the council The whole sanhedrim; their sense is, that they would have the sanhedrim convened by the chief priests and elders, and being met together, then to signify to the chief captain; or let him know that they were assembled together, upon the affair of Paul, and that they…

And when Paul’s sister’s son heard of their lying in wait, &c.] Paul might have a sister living in Jerusalem; or this her son might be there on account of his studies; he might be a pupil to one of the doctors, by which means he might come at this secret, that such a number of men were in ambush,…

Then Paul called one of the centurions unto him For under this chief captain there must have been ten of them, if the company of which he was captain consisted of a thousand men, as his title chief captain or chiliarch imports; for a centurion was over an hundred men, as his title signifies;…

So he took him, and brought him to the chief captain Immediately, without any more to do, without curiously inquiring into the thing, or examining the young man about it; which showed him to be a man of a good disposition, and ready to do a kind office, even to a prisoner: and said, Paul the…

Then the chief captain took him by the hand Some have thought that the reason of this was, that he expected that the young man had brought him a present in his hand, from Paul; but this is to represent him as a sordid mercenary man, which ought not to be said, without sufficient proof; rather this…

And he said, the Jews have agreed to desire thee By the Jews are meant, the Jewish sanhedrim, for the young man had not only intelligence of the conspiracy, and lying in wait of the forty men or more; but also of the agreement which the sanhedrim at the motion of these men were come into, to make…

But do not thou yield unto them Or be persuaded by them, to bring Paul down from the castle to the sanhedrim; this must not be imputed to the young man’s pride and vanity, in taking upon him to give advice to the chief captain; but to his great affection for his uncle, which moved him to entreat,…

So the chief captain then let the young man depart After he had had the account from him, and was master of the whole affair: and charged him, see thou tell no man that thou hast showed these things to me; which was prudently said; it was a right and wise thing to conceal this matter, that the men…

And he called to him two centurions Who had each of them an hundred soldiers under them: saying, make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea; which was formerly called Strato’s tower, a sea port town, where Felix the Roman governor now was; it was six hundred furlongs, or seventy five miles…

And provide them beasts Horses or mules; the Syriac version reads in the singular number, “a beast”: and one being sufficient for Paul, here may be a change of number; the Arabic and Ethiopic versions leave out these words, but the following clause makes them necessary: that they may set Paul on;…

And he wrote a letter after this manner. ] The chief captain wrote a letter to Felix the governor, the form and sum of which were as follow; this letter he sent by one of the centurions to him.

Claudius Lysias, unto the most excellent Governor Felix, &c.] This is the inscription of the letter, and by it we learn the name of the chief captain, so often spoken of in this and the two preceding chapters, which was Claudius Lysias; the first of these names is a Roman one, and which he might…

This man was taken by the Jews Meaning Paul, who was presented by the centurions to the governor, and was in his presence when the letter was opened and read, and who was taken by the Jews in the temple, and from thence dragged out and beaten by them: and should have been killed of them; and would…

And when I would have known the cause Or crime, he was guilty of: wherefore they accused him: which they charged him with, and for which they beat him almost to death: I brought him forth into their council; their court of judicature, the great sanhedrim.

Whom I perceived to be accused of questions of their law, &c.] As about the resurrection of the dead, and a future state, which some in the council denied, and some asserted, which with this heathen man were idle and foolish questions; or about the defiling of the temple, and speaking contemptibly…

And when it was told me As it was by Paul’s sister’s son, how that the Jews laid wait for the man; had formed a conspiracy to take away his life, and laid a scheme in order to it, and at least intended, if they were not actually in ambush, to seize him as he should be brought from the castle to the…

Then the soldiers, as it was commanded them, took Paul, &c.] Out of the castle, and put him upon a beast, as the chief captain had ordered the centurions, and they had directed the soldiers to do: and brought him by night to Antipatris: they set out from Jerusalem at the third hour, or about nine…

On the morrow they left the horsemen to go with him That is, the two hundred soldiers, and the two hundred spearmen, who were all on foot, left the seventy horsemen to conduct Paul to Caesarea; for being come to Antipatris, all danger from the Jews was over: and returned to the castle; the castle…

Who, when they came to Caesarea The seventy horsemen: and delivered the epistle to the governor; to Felix, governor of Judea, who was now at Caesarea; namely, the letter which Claudius Lysias, the chief captain, sent to him; the form and contents of which are before given: these presented Paul also…

And when the governor, had read the letter Which he doubtless opened and read as soon as he had received it, not knowing what important business might be contained in it, or of what dangerous consequence a neglect of reading it might be; this showed care and diligence in him: he asked of what…

I will hear thee, said he The Arabic and Ethiopic versions read, “we will hear”, which is a grand courtly way of speaking: when thine accusers are come; which Lysias, in his letter, informed him that he had ordered them to come; which shows the governor to have some sense of justice and integrity,…